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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Aug 31, 2012
August 31, 2012
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Labor Day Weekend:
Labor Day weekend marks the traditional end of summer and beginning of fall (even though fall doesn't begin for almost three more weeks).
The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on Sept 05, 1882, in New York City. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the federal marshals and military troops during the Pullman Strike.
President GROVER CLEVELAND made reconciliation with the labor movement a top political priority and as a gesture of good faith, pushed legislation to make Labor Day a national holiday. The legislation was unanimously approved by Congress (a tradition of bipartisanship that continues even today!)MDA Telethon:
As you remember, last year's MDA Labor Day Telethon was changed from a 21 and a half hour show with JERRY LEWIS as the host to a six-hour telethon in each time zone --and without Jerry. It still raised a lot of money --last year's total was $61.5 million, the best since 2008.
This year, the name has been changed --it's now the "MDA Show of Strength" and no longer a telethon-- and will originate from Los Angeles instead of Las Vegas and only run for three hours, beginning at 8 pm (Eastern and Pacific), 7 pm (Central).
The show will still run on the 160 "Love Network" stations and you can also catch the show at mda.org on the internet.
Featured performers will include CARRIE UNDERWOOD, LUKE BRYAN, TIM McGRAW and B.o.B; plus pre-teped segments featuring OneREPUBLIC, BRANDY, ALL AMERICAN REJECTS, HOT CHELLE RAE, KARMIN, WILL.I.AM, BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY, CAROLE KING, REAGAN IMHOFF, PITBULL, GAVIN DeGRAW and ALANIS MORRISSETTE.Trash talk and satellite dish:
PATRICIA "Tanning Mom" KRENTCIL is back in trouble this morning. The NY Post reports the deeply-charred media fixture was being roasted at a gay bar in Hell's Kitchen called the XL Club, but did a little too much pre-partying! Word is she fell over on the red carpet, tried to attack a drag queen, was "incoherent," "belligerent" and the staff wanted her out after just five minutes. Club security took care of the media darling, who skyrocketed into notoriety after allegedly bringing her six-year-old daughter into a tanning booth. (Lee)
Chic Sh*t:
If you have nothing else planned for the Labor Day weekend, go shopping! Seriously. Racked.com says based on sales data collected in 2011, Labor Day weekend is the biggest sale holiday of the year. Even bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On average, you can get a whopping 48.4 percent off the retail price when out shopping this weekend. That's an average culled from more than 150 online retailers last year.
Other holiday weekends where the average discounts are over 40 percent: Presidents' Day, Columbus Day and New Years' Day.Reality Round-Up:
Sad news for fans of that train-wreck of a reality show, "Jersey Shore."
MTV announced yesterday they were pulling the plug on the Gym-Tan-Laundry show after the upcoming sixth season, which is set to begin in early October.
However, look for an hour-long special about the show airing before this year's MTV Video Music Awards next Thursday, which includes a sneak peek at the upcoming season.Look what I found:
One whale's barf is another boy's treasure.
You read that right: CHARLIE NAYSMITH of Southbourne, England, was taking a walk down the beach when he stumbled across a large rock. This rock turned out to be about 600 grams of ambergris, which is the polite term for sperm whale vomit. However, decades of floating in seawater have turned the chunk into a smooth, slightly waxy rock with a sweet smell.
That's why Charlie will be making a cool £40,000, or $63,100 for us Americans --although that estimate might be on the high side. It turns out that ambergris is highly prized by perfumers because of its scent. Many perfumers no longer use the substance, because it is associated with whaling and sperm whales are a threatened species. Still, there's a high demand in the perfume world for the substance. (AB) -
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